19 Writers Recap the Festival of Faith and Writing

On April 14th–one month ago today–the biennial Festival of Faith and Writing began.

Writers inspired by all faiths descended onto the Calvin College campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan for workshops, panels, plenary sessions, and readings.

The Festival lasted only a few days. But during the month since, several attendees and speakers have taken the time to stop, reflect, and write about their experience, sharing with us from their personal blogs.

Whether you were there this year or only wishing you were there (or had no clue that this writing conference even existed), please enjoy the festival experience as recounted differently by each writer below.

Addie Zierman

Addie is the author of Night Driving: A Story of Faith in the Dark, and When We Were On Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love and Starting Over. Her tagline? “Re-imagining faith one cliché at a time.” (Be sure to like her Facebook page and follow her on Twitter.)

In her “What I’m Into” post for April, Addie includes a short history of her involvement at the Festival, her love for the bi-annual tradition, and her role on two of the panels this year–one on writing in the age of social media, and one on writing about your spouse. Her love affair with the conference continues to evolve:

Rick Theule

In the recap post on his first time at the Festival of Faith and Writing, Rick explores the balance between attending sessions with big-name writers and choosing sessions based on topic alone.

Jessica Mesman-Griffith

Jessica Mesman Griffith is the co-author of Love & Salt: A Spiritual Friendship Shared in Letters and blogs with Jonathan Ryan at Sick Pilgrim, “a space for fellow travelers to rest a while”. I love their invitation for those intrigued by the Catholic church: “We want to invite people in, encourage them to look around, raid the church for treasures, and claim what’s theirs.” Her personal website is www.jessicamesman.com, and you can follow her on Twitter as well.

In Jessica’s reflection post on the Festival of Faith and Writing, she shares her experience of being a Catholic in the sea of protestant attendees:

She was delighted to have one protestant writer confess to being “Catholic-attracted” (I love that, too). Make sure to read the inspiring post in full.

Sandra Glahn

Sandra Glahn is an author of numerous books and writer at www.aspire2.com. She often explores issues revolving around women, gender, and justice. You can learn more about her on Twitter and be one of the many who have liked her Facebook page.

Sandra’s blog post Call a Friend, Watch a Sunset was inspired by a session with Makoto Fujimura. She briefly explores the difference between the digital and the real experience, opening with this humorous anecdote:

A.S. “Pete” Peterson

A.S. “Pete” Peterson is a fiction author residing in Tennessee. With brother Andrew Peterson, he also runs and contributes to The Rabbit Room, described as “an online version of the Oxford pub where the Inklings met”. You can join Pete’s following on Twitter here and the Rabbit Room on Twitter here.

As a first-time attendee at the Festival of Faith and Writing, Brenda had plenty of reflecting to share in a blog post dedicated to the event. She writes about “writing depression”, meeting her favorite bloggers, the calling to write, and more. Her concluding thoughts:

Heather Caliri

In Heather’s shared post with Nicole T. Walters, Ashley Hales, and Tammy Perlmutter on the Mudroom blog, her overwhelming feeling towards the festival was gratitude:

Traci Rhoades

Traci is a Grand Rapids writer who has been blogging at www.tracesoffaith.com since January 2014. The post categories on her website are Book Reviews (etc.), Doing God’s Work, Friday Conversations, Guest Posts, Lessons from Bible Study, and Preparing You. Add her as a friend on Facebook or follow her Twitter account.

In Traci’s blog post “Festivals are for Feasting”, she touches on her conference anxiety, treasure-trove of new books to read, and more. (Notice: later in the post, she graciously offers to share those books if you’re in the area. Just saying.) She begins with some background:

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about Sylas

You might know me as Sylas, Sylo or Kaitlyn, so I've started to sign as S/K. While writing about the inner life, the outer life and the writing life, I'm learning to take myself less seriously and the world more so.